Iranian Influence on Moslem Literature, Part I eBook

I compared the well with the world which is brimful
of all manner of harm and terrible perils, the four
snakes with the four humours which constitute the
physical basis of man, but which, should they be excited,
prove mortal poison; the branches to life, the black
and white mice to night and day which in perpetual
alternation consume our lifetime; the dragon with
death inevitable; the honey to the particle of joy
which man derives from his senses of smell, taste,
sight, hearing and feeling, but which makes him oblivious
of himself and all his circumstances and decoy away
from the path to emancipation. So circumstanced
I found myself, and endeavoured to conduct myself
with as much rectitude as possible in the hope once
again to experience a time when I should acquire a
guide for myself and help for my cause. I remained
in this stage till I returned from India to my homeland
after I had made a copy of this book and a few more.

APPENDIX IV

THE TRIAL OF AFSHIN..

A DISGUISED ZOROASTRIAN GENERAL.

[Afshin was a Zoroastrian at heart. His trial
and condemnation are referred to by Browne, Literary
History of Persia. I take the account direct from
Tabari. It is to be found also in Ibn Athir and
Ibn Khaldun. The legal procedure reveals prominently
the condition under which professed non-Moslems lived—­religious
liberty was granted to them. Note that it was
possible to chastise ecclesiastical officers like Imams
and Muezzins because of their interference with the
religious practices of non-Moslems. Observe the
part played by a Mobed at a criminal trial conducted
according to Muhammadan usages. The Zoroastrian
priest, who subsequently embraced Islam, comes forward
to give evidence against the most puissant but covert
co-religionist of his times.]

It has been related by Harun son of Isa, son of Mansur
as follows:—­I was present in the house
of Muatisim and there were there Ahmad bin Ali Dawud
and Ishaq bin Ibrahim son of Masab and Muhammad bin
Abdal Maliq al Zayyad. They then brought Afshin
who was yet not in rigorous imprisonment, and there
were present people who were prepared to cause Afshin
to shed tears. There was nobody in the house belonging
to any high position except the sons of Mansur, for,
the people had left. Those present were Muhammad
bin Abdal Maliq al Zayyad and there were Mazyar, the
ruler of Tabaristan, the Mobed, and the Marzban son
of Urkesh, one of the chieftains of Sughd, and two
people from among the Sughdians. Then Muhammad
Ibn Abdal Maliq called the two people whose clothes
were torn and asked them how they were. They
then uncovered their backs which were torn of the
flesh. Muhammad turning to Afshin asked “Do
you know these?” “Yes, this man is the
Mauzzin and this, one is the Imam who made a mosque
at Ashrushana, and I struck each of them a thousand
lashes, and that was because there was a covenant
between myself and the kings of Sughd including a
clause to the effect that I should leave each community
to its own religion. But these two people attacked
a shrine which had images in it, a shrine which was
at Ashrushna, and they took out the images and turned
the shrine into a mosque. I therefore struck
them one thousand lashes for this transgression of
theirs.”